COVID-19: A thread to share some thoughts and events

Thank you TelephoneBill. Graciously accepted.

This unfolding covid virus is the least of my health concerns. A genetic timebomb, armed by stress and triggered by adverse near-fatal reaction to hospital related materials trashed a vital part of my immune system is another story. Cytochrome P450,The part that metabolises toxins.

Ordinary everyday "normally well-tolerated" products. Preservatives, disinfectants, medications, surgical gear, dressings, perfumes, deodorants, synthetic fabrics, herbicides, anything chlorine are at the top of a very large list.

In my last consult with the specialist, I was told " sorry mate, there's nothing that the profession that I represent can offer you that (a) will help (b) might potentially help but in your case is likely to make matters far worse or (c) won't just kill you. In short you're on your own and will need to figure it out yourself". That was ten years ago.


So I'd call it a Toxic Overload Syndrome. To date, I've had a few near misses. I sold my home in 2012 and lived outta the back of my van for five years on a quest to spend time in clean air, far enough away from all the shit but close enough to source organic raw food and real water. Anything else is strictly forbidden.


There's my "social distancing" training. I can do a month in the desert or in the bush.


As for the dreaded virus, I have no choice other than facing it head on and use the old ways if I expect to survive it.

I noted the above wrt chlorquin and was surprised to see it on this morning's news.
 
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Frank speaks for us all.

I have some small appreciation of what you describe. My wife discovered that she inherited HemoChromatosis with a defective C282Y which is "Iron Overload". She too has reactions to perfumes, deoderants and the like. It also leaves orange patches on your face...hmm, no further comment here.

In 2015, a genetic breakthrough was made with a technology called CRISPR and CAS9. You may be aware of this already. This can seek out specific gene sequences and "cleave" them to replace the gene with a repair. Some remarkable work has been done very recently.

I suspect that research work is currently underway with the SARS-Cov-2 virus using CRISPR techniques. Its a race against time world over.

Today, I was interested to know more about killing the virus on surfaces and was recently directed to this article which is useful... https://www.theguardian.com/comment...kills-coronavirus-alcohol-based-disinfectants

For a bit of light-hearted and friendly rivalry, you may want to find out why the White House is white. It used to be grey...
 
I think I'm gonna watch "The life of Brian" later as a mental health top-up.

Did I hear right that the Brits are "suspending mortgage repayments"?
 
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... having a Gin and Tonic … or rather the Earth version of a Jynnan Tonnyx - just in case the tonic water with quinine helps.

Followed Frank's early link to my US state - where the first US case was hospitalized - it shows a peak and slight drop in cases for March. Not sure what that can be attributed to, and if that trend continues - but now schools and wife's public library are closed. Wife just did a brief WWW survey and public libraries are closed in the states.

@TelephoneBill: As far as the blood O2 testers - I was left alone in treatment room during physical the other year. I normally breath shallow breaths and registered low 90's% - the nurse left and I thought to take deep breaths and it quickly jumped 4-6 %. So it seems a real test would then have folks take a few deep breaths so see the efficiency of the lungs getting oxygen into the lungs for a real measure. Also I donate blood and was called on 'irregular heartbeat' - which resulted in a visit and tests and all was well. I now remember to sit feet flat on floor and breath deep and steady while they take my pulse and they don't confuse the normal change in heartbeat during inhale/exhale as irregular heartbeat. Also speaking of messing with tests - before donation they measure hemoglobin. I started drinking a lot of water/fluids before doantaion because it makes donation faster, but it watered down the measured iron% - so I got marked 'no donate' one day. Went for blood tests to make sure I wasn't having an issue - and there were no issues. I just stopped fluid overload before donating because the simple test gets confused with extra blood volume.
 
This is all fascinating stuff. As a keen endurance runner I am wondering whether a regime of running improves resistance to the virus. I hope so.

I am puzzled by the decline of new cases in China. This could be due to
1) high natural immunity of their population.
2) draconian enforcement of social isolation.
3) questionable reporting practices.

I think the decline is a result of the combination of all three elements. Having worked for some three years in Shanghai I think that (3), questionable reporting practices might an important explanation. My interpreter explained to me that it was common to keep three sets of books. The first contained the real facts on the ground. This was for your own reference. The second contained the facts that you would like your boss to see. The third contained the facts that your boss would like to report to his superiors. But we can never know if this is the case so you can toss this in the waste bin where you discard scurrilous rumours.

Certainly this is a good opportunity to build on (Luni?'s) marvellous idea for a wiki of community Teensy knowledge.
 
As of today Italy has passed the death rate of china
3200 china, 3400 italy, and italy has half as many cases of china
 
Just a simple reminder of post #1 please. Is your contribution factual? And beware of emotional enbroidery...

@defragster: SpO2 meters. For others who may not have studied these, they work on the ratio of "light" transmission visible/IR (source to detector). This is going to be a bit variable for many reasons, even placement of finger. Key point is to be above 90% - anything lower needs investigation. I was going to make a joke, but perhaps this is not the time for flippancy on this topic. One interesting thing here is the illustration that you can "access" small particles in vivo from an external source. Light has such incredibly small wavelengths (compared to radio) and that's the kind of features needed to get into the molecular world. It mirrors my previous point about resolution of a measurement being high for "frequency/time". You need small to probe small, and a virus is small in the extreme. If we are to get something Teensy that is COVID-19 specific, I feel that some parameter along these lines is what is required. We need some inspired thinking.

Going back to Magnetic Resonance, there are a few home brew experiments on youtube about simple can-do-in-garage measurements. The key factor is to start with a very uniform magnetic field to energise the molecules (such as water) and align spin axes all in the same direction. If the field is VERY uniform, then when the excitation field relaxes, all molecules will spin down at the same rate. So their vectors will all be additive, and you can get a signal emitted that is measurable. Watch the videos to see this being done. Water gives off an emitted radio wave of just above 2KHz (yes, its audio). Now if we could excite part of the folded protein that is the virion, and if we can excite enough of them all at the same time, then an externally measureable signal should reveal itself. Have we any organic researchers in the forum that know more about this?

Edit: Here is a good video to understand MR ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OrPCNVSA4o
 
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Just a simple reminder of post #1 please. Is your contribution factual? And beware of emotional enbroidery...

@defragster: SpO2 meters. For others who may not have studied these, they work on the ratio of "light" transmission visible/IR (source to detector). This is going to be a bit variable for many reasons, even placement of finger. Key point is to be above 90% - anything lower needs investigation. I was going to make a joke, but perhaps this is not the time for flippancy on this topic. One interesting thing here is the illustration that you can "access" small particles in vivo from an external source. Light has such incredibly small wavelengths (compared to radio) and that's the kind of features needed to get into the molecular world. It mirrors my previous point about resolution of a measurement being high for "frequency/time". You need small to probe small, and a virus is small in the extreme. If we are to get something Teensy that is COVID-19 specific, I feel that some parameter along these lines is what is required. We need some inspired thinking.

Going back to Magnetic Resonance, there are a few home brew experiments on youtube about simple can-do-in-garage measurements. The key factor is to start with a very uniform magnetic field to energise the molecules (such as water) and align spin axes all in the same direction. If the field is VERY uniform, then when the excitation field relaxes, all molecules will spin down at the same rate. So their vectors will all be additive, and you can get a signal emitted that is measurable. Watch the videos to see this being done. Water gives off an emitted radio wave of just above 2KHz (yes, its audio). Now if we could excite part of the folded protein that is the virion, and if we can excite enough of them all at the same time, then an externally measureable signal should reveal itself. Have we any organic researchers in the forum that know more about this?

Comment on the SpO2 and other 'simple tests' was just with regard to their variability and knowledge of the person making the test report. The Nurse left the room with the sensor in place on my finger - and a few deep breaths made a big difference. The detection was accurate - the variability of the 'sample' easily influenced. Had I shown 89% would they have red flagged me and given me meds or taken extreme measure to investigate - or simply asked me to take some fuller breaths to check actual function. I was surprised at how quickly the meter responded to purposeful respiration. Drinking too much water before donating blood cost the insurance company $800 for blood work. The EKG (?) for 'odd pulse' was an office visit and plus a $60 test. That is why the 'breathalyzer' has inbuilt calibration and expectations for sample control.

And early note on fluid from 'lung air' was because it doesn't involve bodily fluids (blood or mucus from ~3" inside the skull) not already part of the environment to guard against - though not concentrated to a liquid. Just wondering if it might be an easily testable sample (Magnetic Resonance or other excitation) given it presents a route of infection. Dr's and Veterinarians have a ready supply of liquid nitrogen and dry ice is at the grocery store - if it works the same at a mere -109°F.
 
And I had this open and found it an interesting read: The science of soap – here’s how it kills the coronavirus

So why does soap work so well on the Sars-CoV-2, the coronavirus and indeed most viruses? The short story: because the virus is a self-assembled nanoparticle in which the weakest link is the lipid (fatty) bilayer. Soap dissolves the fat membrane and the virus falls apart like a house of cards and dies – or rather, we should say it becomes inactive as viruses aren’t really alive.
...
 
The most uniform field we all have at our disposal (unless you are at the North/South poles) is the Earth's magnetic field. The problem which arises is objects nearby distort it, such as metal girders in a building. If you go out into your garden, that will probably work well. Its the Earth's field, by the way, that gives the 2 KHz signal. Stronger fields from such things as neodymium magnets can give much higher frequencies. The energising field has to be at right angles to the Earth's field. A long solenoid, or a solenoid with correction windings/magnets can give a good uniform energising field.

I have edited my post with a good video to watch for understanding the principle. I'll see if I can find a video I saw a year back where a student at a US university demo'ed it with tap water using a laptop in the open air with a simple coil. Lots of others have videos showing how to do it - the kit can easily be hand made. Students do this in the lab all the time using a company's kit.

In my own garage, I measured the field using a Hall Effect device (lots on ebay) and found a location where the Earth's field seemed to be uniform. I then tried the experiment on a small bottle of tap water. I got a lots of spurious signals, which looked like ringing of the pickup coil, but just on one occasion, I got a very long signal (decaying exponential) that lasted about four or five seconds and was in the 2 KHz region. Attempts to repeat it were not so successful. I was diverted to other matters before I could conclude it.

You can use an A.C. field for energising, but you can also use a solenoid D.C. field at right angles to the Earth's field. The secret seems to be switching the D.C. energising field very abruptly - and I'm sure a Teensy can do that. The problems are mains hum can also upset the Earth's field, and various ideas at humbucking arrangements have been devised.

The student demo used a Fourier Transform on the signal to bring out a display of the 2 KHz peak. That's where Teensy can really come in to play -as shown in the SDR radio posts in the forum. If the field is slightly off being uniform, then the frequencies are going to be spread - a bit like phase noise on OXCO signals.

The real issue for COVID-19 is will there be enough signal from the amount of molecules. That's one of the unknown's and we need the theory to know where to go searching in the spectrum. My guess is that there will be several parts of the virion protein molecule that give off lots of different frequencies. That will actually be good news, for then there will be a finger-print for COVID-19 that is different to swine flu.

Modern computing principles can dig very small signals out of tremendous amounts of noise - I'm talking -100 dB plus here. This is why the Internet exists. Were it not for this transformation, then VDSL at 40 Mbps would never have been invented. It would never get down the copper from your house to the cabinet.

Dig out VERY small to catch VERY small...

Edit: Here is one Earth Field NMR experiment (but its not the one I'm looking for) ... https://hackaday.io/project/1376/gallery#8c6b34944bd056920f0dfd0ce9c4ce35

Edit2: Aha, this is what I was looking for... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISDGobav8MQ&feature=youtu.be
 
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Another thought: What's the difference between a CPAP machine and a ventilator? If the difference is just sensors and the ability to supplement the oxygen ratio, perhaps the mechanics of a ventilator are already available in CPAP machines.

I am a CPAP user and my child and I have spent some time on ventilators so I picked up a few things chatting up RTs Respiratory Therapists. I would like to contribute to a CPAP mod project(make doctor programmed unit user settable), or a DIY CPAP from scratch project. I have an old CPAP for test mule, Pulse Ox, oxygen cylinders, and some odds and ends. We have some local confirmed cases, so at some point it could be possible to actually test. silver lining

A ventilator has much more detailed instrumentation, settable operating parameters, and the ability to initiate breathing for you if you are unable. A respirator usually has 1 hose for inhale and another for exhale to measure tidal volumes. My guess is it uses a heated wire MAF mass airflow sensor on each hose, a type of sensor present on all modern cars. Older vents displayed tidal volumes directly by the rising and falling of bellows cylinders. Using a respirator while awake and able to initiate your own breaths can be fairly uncomfortable if the vent is older and does not synch to your breathing timing. O2 enrichment is often fed directly to the mask or to the junction of the 2 hoses just prior to the mask, as the O2 flow rate is independently adjustable at the O2 source and O2 concentration is settable with a variable venturi. The type of facemask and location of O2 line into mask is an important factor I do not understand. A rebreather mask has a bag attached. There can be sealed suction catheters attached for clearing mucus for trach patients.

A CPAP or BiPAP usually only has 1 hose, operates mostly on sensed pressure, is generally not user settable except for minor comfort settings(ramp up). Both vent and PAP usually incorporate some type of heating and humidification system.

From what I have read, the blebs are the result of alvioli wall thickening, then the process of breathing flexes those overthick walls till a mechanical stress fracture occurs. Typical vent settings were not helping because the air sacks were allowed to compress fully during exhalation. What helped was adding some constant positive pressure to keep the air sacks partially inflated at all times, limiting wall motion. Constant Positive Air Pressure is what CPAP stands for, so there is a good chance they will help. I know that when I had pneumonia, putting on the CPAP was quite a relief allowing me to breath with less effort. One problem will be finding out what pressure each individual CPAP should be set to. Mine varies from 11 to 22PSI to prevent sleep apnea on average 55 times per hour while I sleep. I understand its a bit higher than average. Choosing a starting pressure for non apnea COVID-19 patients and an algorithm for identifying patient specific max and let down pressure is really where we need guidance from a pulmonologist. They are quite busy these days, but I bet we can get attention if we have a DIY built from common parts prototype available to demonstrate.
 
A (slightly less) complex idea than MRT:
A DS18B20 sensor to measure temperature. No Joke. We have only a very old thermometer and today we tested if it still worked. It did not. There were none left in the pharmacy - sold out.
I found a DS18B20 in a drawer... at least it is good enough to test if you have high temperature or not. :)

Then, my son owns a smartwatch that can measure the blood oxygen saturation.
Don't know how that works, but that seems doable (Is it an IR-Sensor?)
 
Other than possibly a shared power supply there isn't much inside a ventilator that you would want to share simultaneously between patients. However...

I do very much like the idea of a diy vent/CPAP type device constructed from common materials. We need control/display system(teensy), sensitive pressure sensors up to maybe 30psi, a variable pressure air source(fans, compressor, or bellows), Mass Airflow Sensor, intake air filter, a heated water basin, tubing, a mask. Being purpose built it may as well have SD logger, SpO2% sensor, temp sensor in mask. Normal temps on face may not be 98.6 but it will show trends on logger.
 
Time to consider real projects

The events of this week are momentous (understatement). Lockdowns in California, Illinois, New York in US. Lockdowns in Europe. Lockdowns elsewhere. Events are too big to write about with any meaning. I think we all now get an idea of how big this thing is. Its bigger than WW2 by a large measure.

If our forum can help its members... with data, with ideas, with mental support, with consideration... then now is the time to start up some actions.

What we have in common is humanity and Teensy - Teensanity. The use of Teensy to keep some sanity. And we do that by putting our brains and hands to work.

We need some projects to explore. See where these lead. And what seems to have emerged from debate so far is a least two projects - (1) Temperature sensing/profiling, and (2) Ventilation. Other projects may emerge (make your suggestions as you think), but we take on (1) and (2) for the moment.

We need project leaders/managers for these two. I would not wish to distract from any important T4.1 work that may be going on, so if my suggestions conflict then please highlight and we can steer clear. I have two candidates to suggest (1) Frank B (Temp sensing/profiling) and (2) Michael Meissner (Ventilation). Gents, if you wish not to lead on these, for whatever reason, that is fine. If anyone else would like to lead, then we can elect through the thread posts. I await reaction from these two gents before progressing these projects further.

The first actions a project needs to set in place are: (a) The VISION of where/what the project sees for the future, (b) An OBJECTIVE(s) and PLAN of what the project wishes to achieve to meet the vision, (c) TESTS to be conducted, to check if the objective(s) has been achieved, and finally (d) SUMMARY of what has been done, and a wrap-up closure declaration.

I have no timescale to suggest for such projects, nor do I have any resources I can offer you at the outset - these may emerge. Once we have agreement on projects and their leaders, then we can recruit team members. Possible that some would like to be members of both teams?

Over to forum for comment...
 
(1) Temperature sensing/profiling,
Now that I'm in the home office, there's not much I can do. Fortunately it's very simple, needs no calibration and the sensors are cheap.
(Google for DS18B20) The sensor uses a one-wire protocol.
We already have a library for it and even working code under "OneWire - Examples". Any Teensy (T2.x, T3.x, T4) will work. Which display you choose depends only on your imagination and skills. So there is not much to say here
I had it up and running in 10 minutes.
 
OK. You have identified one possible solution (DS18B20 + Teensy = Horse and Cart). Now what exactly was the problem?

Our problem is COVID-19. We would like to know if we have it or not. This "knowing" is one objective. There may be more "objectives", lets explore...

You picked out the word "imagination" - a great word, it sounds remarkably like "vision" to me. So what is our collective VISION for project #(1)? It would be interesting to see what vision all of the readers of this thread had. No doubt many and varied, but let me kick off with a first attempt at VISION #1. Others feel free to chip in.

My VISION#1 would be "To have the best Temperature Method in the world for tracking the progress of COVID-19". Geeze, now that's a vision !

This vision has many possible objectives. Finding out if I personally have COVID-19, or the wife, or the kids, is one of them. Profiling the progression of the disease is another. I'd like to know at what point it started and at what point it ended. If I knew at what point it started, then backtracking when I was first infected becomes a little easier, but what is the incubation period? Are there any indicators in the profiling that give any clues?

A project is defined as "something" having a START and an END. We can start with defining the Vision, the Objectives, and the Plan. We can end with the Data Collection, the Testing and the Summary. By carefully defining these, you know when the end is reached.

Lots of fun, knowledge gained, experience etc can be had along the way. We are a collective group and volunteers. We are in this together for the sake of our humanity - and Teensy - Teensanity. For some, this will not be fun. I don't know if I will still be here when the PEACE DECLARATION is made at the end of the COVID-19 WAR - I'm 70 years and mortality is said to be 44% for my group, if I become infected.

The Project Leader/Manager is the co-ordinator for that Project #. Their responsibility is to co-ordinate activity of lots of resources to try deliver the objectives. They "speak" as the voice of the project - back into the forum.

===

For Project #2, that could be a bit more serious. Hopefully, if we get sick we get taken care of. But the shortage of VENTILATORS, even the shortage of hospital beds could mean a home built (Heath Robinson) ventilator could prove life saving. At least it could be useful, until better medical care becomes available. We live and will be confined into many different locations/situations.

===

If we kick these projects off, then who knows what resources and what help we will be given - and from where. Big, big companies are going to get trashed by this COVID-19 WAR. They may be willing to donate some resources (e.g. stuff to make "bellows") if we tackle this constructively.

We are a world group. We have a lot of very expensive brain power between us. Now is the time to step up...
 
Just last week I got a package of 4 BME280 sensor boards off Amazon for about $16. The BME280 is a nifty little sensor that measures temperature, pressure, and humidity. There is a library for it on GITHUB and it took only a few minutes to connect and run the demo program---which ran without changes on a T3.6 The library is from Brian R. Taylor at Bolder Flight Systems and it offers lots of options for oversampling and smoothing.

This sensor would seem to be a natural as part of a do-it-yourself ventilator project.
 
... BME280 is a nifty little sensor that measures temperature, pressure, and humidity.

Gosh, they are tiny, 2.5 mm square and 1 mm high. Teensy peripherals should be fairly easy part of a Project#2 design. However, getting delivery may not be so. My biggest concern is the mechanics/bellows part. How do you make a home made bellows for a BiPap type design? And motorised operation needs to be quiet as well as slow.

Continuous Positive Air pressure (CPap) seems a good idea for a helmet to wear in public. I recall the first artifical hip operations were done in a positive pressure tent. The filtered positive pressure kept "nasties" out of the area for open wound surgery.


EDIT: Hmm. there's a thought here. If we all walked about in public with a flimsy, but air-tight helmet, that had positive filtered air pressure (only slight over atmospheric) then we wouldn't need the social-distancing (?) And we could have a small Teensy/BME280 monitor to keep the pressure safe. The air comes in through a plastic tube about 5mm dia from a filter box strapped either on our backs/fronts/sides.

We could even monitor the filter for humidity, indicating that water droplets (which might contain the nasties), had percolated to the centre of the filter and it was to time to gthoot (get the hell...).

Such helmets only worn when we go out. No need at home, if we don't allow visitors. The flimsy air-tight helmet could have the bottom part open around the collar, where the positive air pressure escapes to atmospheric. Easy on off wearing.
 
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Been lots of interesting ideas and the likes up here.

Hopefully in the mean time, we can all do stuff to slow down the spread of it.

There is an interesting video by Dr Campbell https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNQUHc8wbRc
Which discusses how long the virus can live and be viable on different surfaces.

Things like: it can actually stay in the air for maybe up to 3 hours.

And for example if cardboard is for example sneezed on, it can still have viable germs on it for at least 24 hours. Plastics and many metals and I would also assume Glass, it can live and still be viable for at least 72 hours. So for example it can live at least that long on our cell phones.

Hope everyone is doing well and staying safe and healthy!

EDIT: Also some of the same information in the story https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2020/health/coronavirus-questions-answers/
 
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We can start with defining the Vision, the Objectives, and the Plan. We can end with the Data Collection, the Testing and the Summary.
@TelephoneBill thanks for taking the project manager initiative. Just brainstorming here on project #1.
What if we flip that and start with Data Collection? At this point we do not have a profile for the disease or a baseline to show us normal variations. We also do not know what type of device will be easiest to DIY build, easiest parts to procure, easy enough to manufacture, easiest to use, provide sufficient accuracy, at a low enough cost to become widely used. This is where the wisdom of the crowd can outperform a few very smart guys. I propose every member of the community of the willing:

  • Build at least 1 of what they think will be the best temperature logger based on their own chosen criteria
    Share your build ideas here of course to inspire others and avoid duplication of effort on similar modules.

  • Begin logging themselves or someone close ASAP regardless of health state

  • While logging is on going, get consensus on a website to post our temperature logs correlated to symptom logs, device usage notes, build notes, date of confirmed diagnosis, date of suspected acquire.. (whats the right word?)

  • Analyze logs for trends

  • Eliminate clearly inferior designs

  • Suggest feature merges, modifications to most successful designs

  • Continue iterations, logging all the while

  • Progress to 3 end products. Open source plan, DIY kit, Mass Manufactured Product. Maybe they are all the same design, or maybe they are slightly different designs optimized for the respective build process (Breadboard, DIP, SMT) The data they each produce must be similar enough to be directly compared.

  • With this now deep library of logs of disease progression coupled to device progression we have data to apply to the next problem we face
 
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